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Video games are a great escape from reality, allowing people to find solace in an imaginary world. But what about the nasty side of gaming, when bullying or grooming occurs?
Gaming has changed drastically over the last decade. For example, back in the mid-2000s, players could start a new game and go off on their own for as long as they wanted. If they wanted to talk to other people online, there were IRC channels or message boards to find others with similar interests. But today? Today it’s more common than not with in-game messaging, and we have instant messaging apps like Discord and voice chat apps such as TeamSpeak, Mumble, and Element.
Why is content moderation important?
Content moderation is important for many reasons. It helps keep your gaming platform safe by ensuring that only appropriate content is shared. Additionally, it can enhance the user experience by making sure that users are only seeing content that is relevant and interesting to them. Ultimately, content moderation helps create a positive and enjoyable experience for all gaming platform users.
All types of content should be moderated. This includes but is not limited to video, text, and images. Content moderation will include identifying inappropriate content, such as nudity, hate speech, and illegal activity.
It all boils down to giving everyone the best possible user experience.
Grooming in games starts with a simple question from another player, such as “are you home alone?”
What are the advantages of a solid moderation program? A solid moderation program can help protect your gaming platform from banning trends that can disrupt your customer base, diminish customer trust in your company/product, and protect you from potential lawsuits by both users and third parties.
Bullying and grooming in online gaming
There are many ways that bullying and grooming can happen on online gaming platforms. These can include:
- Players send abusive or threatening messages to other players.
- Players create offensive avatars or in-game content.
- Players engaging in hate speech or harassment in chat rooms or forums.
- Players manipulate game mechanics to harass other players.
Grooming in games starts with a simple question from another player, such as “are you home alone?”
Content moderation is the best way to combat these issues and keep your gaming platform safe. By moderating user-generated content, you can remove offensive material, stop trolls and bullies from ruining the experience for everyone, and create a safe and welcoming environment for all players.
The effects of bullying/grooming in online gaming
While many established gaming platforms have some form of content moderation to protect users from inappropriate or harmful content, however, left unattended, your game will risk becoming a breeding ground for bullying and grooming. Suffice it to say; this will harm the victim’s self-esteem and mental health, most likely causing them more harm than missing out on gaming.
Victims of bullying and grooming will, and rightfully so, speak to others about their experiences. Once the word is spreading about these user experiences, you can stick a fork in your game’s reputation. Gamers will speak out in reviews, subreddits, and social media, leaving you facing an incredible uphill battle to save your platform’s credibility and reputation.
Keep your users safe and engaged with the game.
Imagine starting every morning by reviewing a few hundred NSFW images. After your first cup of coffee, you have some grooming to review and possible CSAM activity to talk to the police about.
Sounds awful.
Set yourself up to focus on game development rather than spending endless hours reviewing inappropriate behavior.
Content moderation to prevent abuse in gaming
In-app messaging and chats need supervision and moderation to be safe. That means that if you’re running a gaming platform, you need to have someone monitoring the conversations that take place within it. This will help keep things safe for all users and enhance the user experience by ensuring people can communicate without being harassed or subjected to inappropriate content.
Not to toot our own horn, but companies like ourselves review and approve content before it is made public. While this might sound like a slow process, it happens with just milliseconds of latency, meaning people are unlikely to notice.
Suppose a user abuses an in-game messaging app. In that case, technology like Besedo’s will ensure others don’t see the offensive messages or images being sent. Real-time moderation for profanity or nudity will ensure that we can keep chats clean and civilized.
That way, Besedo also works to keep the app user-friendly and respectful by enforcing the app’s terms of use. If you’re into podcasts, we highly recommend episode 120, called ‘Voulnet,’ of Darknet Diaries.
Summary and key takeaways
Content moderation is vital in keeping your gaming platform safe and user-friendly. By reviewing and approving all content before it goes live, you can avoid potential problems down the road.
Not only will this save you time and money, but it will also improve the overall quality of your user experience. So if you’re looking for a way to keep your gaming platform safe and improve your user experience, content moderation is the answer.
Ahem… tap, tap… is this thing on? 🎙️
We’re Besedo and we provide content moderation tools and services to companies all over the world. Often behind the scenes.
Want to learn more? Check out our homepage and use cases.
And above all, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or want a demo.
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